WAKE UP CALL TO PROTECT THE COUNTRYSIDE FROM NEW PLANNING LEGISLATION

 

             THE  LOOSE ANTI OPEN-CAST NETWORK

 

WAKE-UP CALL TO PROTECT THE COUNRTYSIDE  FROM  LARGE SCALE MINERAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUED BY CAMPAIGN GROUP

 

             THE  LOOSE ANTI OPEN-CAST NETWORK

 

WAKE-UP CALL TO PROTECT THE COUNRTYSIDE  FROM  LARGE SCALE MINERAL DEVELOPMENT ISSUED BY CAMPAIGN GROUP

PR 2012 ‑15                                                                           28/1/12

Does a com­pa­ny want to dig a big hole near you? Is it inter­est­ed in try­ing to extract sand, clay. grav­el, stone or coal? If it is, and the site is going to be more than 100 hectares, then why not sug­gest to the own­er that they can side­step going to the Local Author­i­ty and have the plan­ning appli­ca­tion con­sid­ered by a new ‘fast- track’ method. Label it a ‘Nation­al­ly Sig­nif­i­cant Infra­struc­ture Project’ and it can then be decid­ed on, in a year, by a  Plan­ning Inspec­tor who, unlike local peo­ple and local­ly elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives, will not know the site, will not be affect­ed and will not know you.

Far- fetched ideas?  Unfor­tu­nate­ly not. These ideas are part of the pro­pos­als in the Government’s Growth and Infra­struc­ture Bill now before Par­lia­ment. It will enable sec­ondary leg­is­la­tion to be passed that, in its present form , will allow an appli­cant to by-pass the local demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion mak­ing process and have their appli­ca­tion treat­ed as a Major Infra­struc­ture Project. The Gov­ern­ment have ini­ti­at­ed a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion process on the pro­pos­al enti­tled  ‘Nation­al­ly sig­nif­i­cant infra­struc­ture plan­ning: extend­ing the regime to busi­ness and com­mer­cial projects: con­sul­ta­tion’ which can be down­loaded from here.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/nationally-significant-infrastructure-planning-extending-the-regime-to-business-and-commercial-projects

The Loose Anti Open­cast Net­work (LAON) has analysed what the effect would be if the leg­is­la­tion was in place now on open­cast mine pro­pos­als. There are 11 pos­si­ble or actu­al pro­pos­als for open­cast mines in Eng­land cur­rent­ly. Under these pro­pos­als, deci­sions about the four largest could be tak­en out of the hands of the Local Author­i­ty and giv­en to a sin­gle unelect­ed per­son to decide. Our Brief­ing Note “ Growth and Infra­struc­ture Bill: Pro­posed 100 Hectare Thresh­old” pub­lished along with this Press Release @

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/11/503382.html

 out­lines fur­ther why The Loose Anti Open­cast Net­work argues against this pro­pos­al and urges oth­er com­mu­ni­ty and envi­ron­men­tal groups to urgent­ly study these pro­pos­als and voice their objec­tions.

All respons­es, on forms pro­vid­ed in the con­sul­ta­tion doc­u­ment, have to be in by 7/1/13.

About LAON

The Loose Anti-Open­cast Net­work (LAON) has been in exis­tence since 2009. It func­tions as a medi­um through which to oppose open cast mine appli­ca­tions. At present LAON links indi­vid­u­als and groups in N Ire­land (Just Say No to Lig­nite), Scot­land (Coal Action Scot­land), Wales (Green Val­leys Alliance, The Merthyr Tyd­fil Anti Open­cast Cam­paign), Eng­land, (Coal Action Net­work), Northum­ber­land, (Whit­ton­stall Action Group, Hal­ton Lea Gate Res­i­dents)) Co Durham (Pont Val­ley Net­work), Leeds, Sheffield (Cow­ley Res­i­dents Action Group), Kirklees, (Skel­mansthor­pe Action Group)  Not­ting­hamshire (Short­wood Farm Open­cast Oppo­si­tion), Der­byshire (West Hal­lum Envi­ron­ment Group, Smal­l­ey Action Group and Hill­top Action Group) , Leices­ter­shire (Minor­ca Open­cast Protest Group) and Wal­sall (Alumwell Action Group).

Con­tact­ing LAON

Steve Leary LAON’Ss Co-ordi­na­tor, at infoatlaon@yahoo.com

You can now fol­low LAON on Twit­ter @ http://twitter.com/Seftonchase